


Strike Him Down

by tealeafling



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Angst, Dear Listeners - Freeform, Gen, Sort of? - Freeform, most of the dialogue is straight from the episode just FYI
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 18:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13506945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tealeafling/pseuds/tealeafling
Summary: Renée Minkowski was not the most up-to-date person when it came to pop culture. But she’d seen enough to know a few references—namely, the movie Alien, and more specifically, its tagline: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” She had been in space long enough to know that line was not entirely accurate. Your crew could hear you scream. There was just rarely anything they could do about it.OR, when I listened to Desperate Measures, I thought Lovelace baiting Kepler would go a different way. My prediction was wrong, but here it is.





	Strike Him Down

**Author's Note:**

> hey so this is my first fanfic! unless you count one I wrote a couple months ago and then deleted bc it wasn’t very good... but anyways, please enjoy! feel free to give me any (constructive) criticism you have, I am not a natural creative writer so anything is appreciated. :)
> 
> also just FYI, I took like 80% of the dialogue straight from the episode itself, so creds to the podcast for that

Renée Minkowski was not the most up-to-date person when it came to pop culture. But she’d seen enough to know a few references—namely, the movie _Alien,_ and more specifically, its tagline: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” She had been in space long enough to know that line was not entirely accurate. Your crew could hear you scream. There was just rarely anything they could do about it.

“Minkowski! I’m gonna shoot Captain Lovelace in the head. And what did I say before? Five minutes? Nah, let’s make it _exciting._ You have until I get to zero. _Ten.”_

Minkowski faltered in pulling herself through the air ducts of the Hephaestus. She knew Kepler was cruel, but she had never heard him sound so... _unhinged._ “Hilbert...”

“All the time in the world. All the time in the– _nine.”_

She whipped her head back to stare at the scientist behind her in the duct, eyes wide. “Is this a trick? Will he shoot her?”

Hilbert shook his head—not in a way that gave a negative answer, but instead with a defeated look. “Minkowski, I—“

_“Will he shoot her?”_

Hilbert sighed. “I warned many times—“

The disturbingly gleeful voice of the man holding two members of her crew hostage crackled through the intercom again. “Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, _eight.”_

A low growl of frustration emanated from Minkowski’s throat. Lovelace was going to die if she didn’t think of something immediately. 

“Anything? Hellooooo? Well, this is getting good, don’t cha think? _Seven!”_

Minkowski opened her mouth to say something back, anything at all to stall for time, but before any words came she was cut off.

“Three.”

 _What the hell?_ Eiffel or Lovelace must have done something to aggravate Kepler even further. Alright, even less time. She had to act right away. They had already come so far to get their ship back, she wasn’t going to stop now.

“Coming up on the last chance, Lieutenant. _Two.”_

She had to do something. _Anything._ But she was in the air ducts, not even close to her crew. She could hear every noise from that madman’s mouth but there was nothing she could do to stop him.

“ _One._ Going once. Going twice!”

Minkowski whipped her head around once again, staring desperately at Hilbert for any sort of plan. “Goddamn it all. Hilbert, we have to do something! We can’t let him–“

 _Bang._ A short cry out, then silence.

If not for the lack of gravity, Minkowski would have collapsed. The silence was deafening, broken only by the commander’s heavy breathing. One of her crew members was _dead._ And she had been frozen, unable to stop it. They were not just stranded in deep space, not slowly slipping away like all of Lovelace’s crew—this was suddenly and undeniably real, right on the other side of the comms.

Although her exact perception of the real events was not entirely accurate.

“You... you... _what did you do?”_

That was the voice of the person she thought had just died. That was Isabel Lovelace.

Kepler laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you really think that would _work?_ That you could goad me until I’d shoot you, leaving Eiffel safe? Well, you thought wrong, Captain!”

Minkowski’s mouth went dry. Was Lovelace not just shot in the head? _Then, is, Eiffel... oh, God._

Hilbert cleared his throat behind her. “Min… Minkowski… Are you alright? We should–“

Then suddenly, Lovelace’s voice came through the comms again. But it did not sound like Lovelace.

_“You have made a mistake, Warren Kepler.”_

Minkowski’s breath caught. That was definitely the voice of Captain Lovelace, but at the same time it sounded like... something else. Like something was using her voice, but... _wasn’t_ her.

Hilbert cleared his throat once again. “Commander... we can get to Urania armory quickly. Leave through next air vent, then run to armory. Fast, simple.”

Minkowski nodded slowly, her fury fading to confusion as Lovelace—or, not-Lovelace—spoke. “Yes... yes. I have no idea what is happening there now, but... we need to get over there.”

***

Running through the halls of the Hephaestus to the Urania was not as fast or simple as Hilbert had made it seem, from a combination of the lack of gravity and their attempts to avoid Jacobi and Maxwell, who were God knows where on the station. But they were there within a few minutes, Minkowski kicking the door open.

Eiffel was... _no,_ Minkowski couldn’t even think of it. Not after all they’d been through. Not after all of the close calls that had turned out alright, he couldn’t be gone after this.

Lovelace was floating directly in front of Kepler, eyes emitting a bright blue light.

_“Your powers are weak, old man.” ___

__Kepler blinked, stunned. “Old... _what?_ Are you quoting _Star Wars—“__ _

Lovelace whipped around, faster than should have been humanly possible. _Is she even human?_

__She placed a hand on Eiffel’s head, reaching through the splatters of red floating in the zero gravity. Then she slowly turned her own head back, passing her eyes over Minkowski and Hilbert in the doorway before locking onto Kepler._ _

_“If you strike him down, he shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”_

__Douglas Eiffel woke up._ _


End file.
